Can I have more than two stages?

Absolutely. Complex pipelines might have 4 or 5 stages. For example: Stage 1 runs Linters. Stage 2 runs Unit Tests. Stage 3 compiles the code. Stage 4 packages the final production image. If any stage fails, the build stops.

Does Multi-Stage make the `docker build` command faster?

Not necessarily. Docker still has to download the heavy tools in Stage 1 and run the compilers. The build might take the exact same amount of time. The massive benefit is the *resulting* Image size, which makes `docker pull` and deployment 10x faster.

Are there any downsides to using Alpine Linux?

Yes. Alpine uses `musl libc` instead of the standard `glibc` used by Debian/Ubuntu. Some advanced Node.js packages (specifically those that rely on pre-compiled C++ binaries, like sharp or bcrypt) might struggle to compile on Alpine without manually installing additional build tools.

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Multi-Stage Builds

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